MAKING A MARK: Teacher visits battlefield sites to bring history alive

As a high school history teacher, Anne McLeod has told the story of Canada’s role on the battlefields of France to hundreds of students over the years.

This fall, she will have a more personal story to tell.

The teacher at Prince Andrew High School in Dartmouth was one of two Nova Scotia educators who travelled to France this summer under the auspices of the Juno Beach Centre Association to see those battlefields first-hand.

“I’m a firm believer that in order to ignite passion in my students, I have to be able to tell history from a personal point of view,” said McLeod.

“When I do that in the classroom, when I show them my pictures, when I tell them how I felt and what I learned by being at a site or talking to people who lived through it, the students really engage.

“Their questions become much more insightful, their thinking takes a different shift rather than saying, ‘Open the book to page 24, this is what happened on D-Day, now answer questions 1 to 12.’”

McLeod and Cindy Campbell, a teacher at Avon View High School in Windsor, visited Vimy Ridge, Dieppe, Beaumont-Hamel and other historic sites along with 26 other Canadian educators during the trip from July 28 to Aug. 6. The trip was partially funded by the association, a non-profit corporation that aims to educate Canadians about our involvement in the First and Second World Wars and to commemorate the sacrifices of Canadians in war.

“Each day was more incredible than the next,” Campbell said. “Visiting Vimy and seeing the memorial and actually touring the tunnels underground where Canadian troops would have been waiting to roll out over the top, that was pretty amazing.”

One of the most emotional moments was meeting French citizens at a memorial ceremony, she said.

“They recalled what it was like to be living under Nazi rule, and they talked about how excited they were when the Canadians arrived and liberated their towns. They so strongly feel that they owe their freedom to Canadian soldiers. It’s kind of an amazing thing to hear someone say that. And they were celebrating us, just because we were Canadian.”

McLeod and Campbell said sharing their experiences will help bring history to life for their students.

“When I show them the tombstone of the 16-year-old Canadian who died over there — he’s younger than some of the kids in that class will be — and the 19-year-old and the 20-year-old … I can make it so much more personal,” McLeod said.

“War isn’t just about tanks and guns and logistics. War is about people.”

A weekly roundup of noteworth achievements of students and their teachers around Nova Scotia. Have a story about your school that you’d like to share? Contact schools@herald.ca